


Simmer

by quietcactus



Series: Sun and Shadow [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Character Study, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 01:06:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8182952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietcactus/pseuds/quietcactus
Summary: Volleyball was usually enough to make him feel alive. For some reason, touching Asahi worked as well.





	

His receives are surprisingly quiet.

It wasn’t by any means intentional. He didn’t make a concerted effort to sound any one way. What was the point? As long as he kept the ball from kissing the ground, smacking the ground, his job was complete. Sometimes he rumbled past with a roll of thunder, but even the shock of noise this created was borne mostly from the delight of a crowd. Sometimes his opponents would think he was a specter shifting, materializing from one location to another before they could blink.

Sometimes he was a Guardian Deity.

Usually, he was just a boy in high school doing what felt right. And usually, what drove him to excel involved volleyball. Whether it was drifting at ease with his best friend, Tanaka, or narrowing in on a spike—it all came back to volleyball.

The air was wet and heavy in the gym. Humidity outside pushed inexorably in to thicken with sweat from young men in motion. Nishinoya Yuu’s heart pulsed in his chest, his hands, his feet. He could feel the throb of blood rushing if he stopped to pay attention. Amber eyes laser-focused on the opposing team’s movements, waiting for the slightest angle of body to suggest where the ball would surge. _Thwack._ The ball drilled toward the right back corner, but Noya was already in place as if the ball had spoken to him. Wrists together, side lunge to the right, push through the heel and lift with his hips. The ball barely made a sound as it arced to Kageyama, who in turn rolled it from deft fingers to the left, to their ace. Here was a sight Noya felt he would never tire of watching. As someone with a compact frame, Noya would always find a special appreciation for the way someone like Hinata danced about the court. He simply defied gravity. It gave Noya deep satisfaction to have another person on their team prove height alone did not determine success.

But Azumane Asahi, nerves of steel and heart of glass, was already sprinting toward the net. His shoes scuffed the court with an abrupt halt. Then in an act of sheer athleticism, he flew. When Asahi went for the kill, one couldn’t help but stare. Three long strides in, planted feet to convert vertical momentum into upward speed, limbs reaching for the sky. His legs would swing back with his right arm and for a brief moment he was still, a body at rest. But then with an astounding rush of strength, Asahi’s body whiplashed around, his large hand banishing the ball with bruising speed. No matter how carefully they prepared, the opposing players were simply unable to meet this demand for recovery.

This was not a ball that kissed the court.

Tanaka whooped from the other side of the net, earning side eyes from his teammates.

“Nice kill!” Tanaka cheered, unrepentant of cheering on his senpai.

“Damn it, you should have at least touched that,” Ukai growled, prowling toward his sweaty little victims. “Ennoshita, I’ve noticed…” his voice trailing off, pulling them into a huddle.

On Noya’s side of the net, his own team formed a makeshift group, but more to pause and breathe the same air than converse. Breaks were precious few under Ukai’s command.

Noya stood with arms akimbo as he desperately sucked air into his lungs. In through the nose, out through the mouth. If he were alone, he would say he could hear his breath. It sounded like the ocean as he inhaled, rushing through his ears. That’s how he knew it was a good breath. A line of sweat tickled his temple and slid past his jaw. He brushed it away, but there was no wicking moisture when they were already underwater.

It felt good to be _alive,_ Noya thought with fervor. When else would he be able to freely spend his days with his best friends, working his body until it ached, proving he might not offer much but _this_ , this was something he could do.

“What’re you smiling about?” Daichi asked with an amused lilt to his deep voice.

Noya hadn’t realized he was. “Nothing, man, life’s just good, you know?” Noya chirped, tilting his head one way then the other to work out a kink.

There was a shift and a presence at Noya’s back. “It must be nice to feel like that all the time,” a quiet voice rumbled from behind.

A shiver ran through Noya’s body from surprise. Asahi had slightly leaned over Noya instead of inserting himself into the circle, as he was wont to do. He would consider himself an inconvenience if someone had to, you know, just step to the side and let his hulking body in.

Noya, for all that he was a ball of energy, felt himself stiffen. He felt too warm, his back just touching Asahi’s chest when the older boy breathed in. He could smell him, though it was not unpleasant. Asahi’s breath just barely lifted the hair by his left ear. Everything was now too focused, too aware of Asahi and his big body and did he always stand this close to him? He must have because no one else reacted to Asahi’s presence by his shoulder.

It was moments like this that Noya felt somewhat perturbed by how _obvious_ Asahi seemed to him these days. Before, Asahi was just another senpai—a frustrating, _admirable_ senpai to watch—but still another boy all the same. And for all that he hated their break from one another and the team, Noya couldn’t help but admit that the conflict somehow strengthened them, like a sword reforged. They weren’t what they were before, but Noya had to believe what they had now was better. Noya was not inclined to ruminate on past regrets. His path only led forward. Even if Asahi was always looking over his shoulder, Noya would be there to drag him by the hand.

The other boys in their huddle were now chatting, but Noya could not remember what was said. He closed his eyes again to inhale deeply, to hear that calming wave of breathing ocean. But Asahi never moved. His chest was a brand of heat against Noya’s spine. The taller boy chuckled at some comment and the reverberations of his laugh rippled through him. Noya felt flushed—he should be cooling down during a break, not heating up.

Noya was snapped out of his reverie when Asahi’s hand squeezed the juncture of his neck and shoulder. Callous. Damp. _Hot_. A thumb brushed up the top knob of his spine while fine-boned fingers curled down to his collarbone. Noya wondered, a little hysterically, if this sudden transfixion was how his teammates felt upon seeing Asahi’s ball careen toward them. He knew he would be unable to unlock his knees and just _move_ even if his life depended on it. Nothing felt more real than the scorch of chest and muscle and hand on his body. He was on _fire_.

“You okay, Noya?” Asahi asked, dousing that quick flare of flame. “Y-you’re kind of spacing out.”

Noya forced a braying laugh, startling Asahi away from him. His stomach clenched at the loss. Perhaps Noya was fighting off a cold. That would explain why his cheeks felt hot to touch.

“Of course! I’m just thinking about that last save. You gotta stay focused!” Noya blurted one of his usual aphorisms, or did he yell, everything felt too crystal-clear and on edge.

But then Asahi smiled that gentle smile of his, one that muted the “wild” and dangerous into something sweet. Asahi had a face made for smiling, even if he was often too anxious to let himself.   

Asahi sighed. “I’m really in awe of you, Noya. I—”But he was cut off when Ukai blew his whistle, rounding his troops to formation. _FINISH THAT THOUGHT_ , Noya screamed to himself, then, _WHY AM I SCREAMING_. But volleyball once again reigned supreme.

A curl of heat simmered, on back burner for now.

As they later were cleaning up, a low rumble loomed above and finally a slight chill of air breezed into the open gym doors. First a patter, then another, then a torrent of rain tamped down the heaviness. Some of his teammates were talking excitedly about something as they rushed out the door and up the steps to the club room. Daichi and Suga meandered at their own place, slapping Asahi on the back as the older boy slumped a little against the door, sighing no doubt about the wet trip home. As Asahi leaned into the door jamb, his frame was silhouette against contrasting light. A wide breadth of shoulder softened.

To those who did not know him, Asahi seemed to be solely a creature of adrenaline. When his mode was set to fight, a rod of steel ran through him, shoulders squared and braced for whatever may come. Conversely, his anxious body was hunched and curled in, trying to make an already conspicuous body invisible.

But when Asahi did not feel the imminent scrutiny of his peers, he was something else altogether. Asahi’s strings would be cut. In repose he looked relaxed. It was in these moments that their younger teammates were emboldened to approach him as he looked neither intimidating nor intimidated. Noya now felt that same compulsion.

Hell if he knew what prompted him, but something in Noya just urged him to _touch_ Asahi. A smaller, bolder voice might have urged him to fan a flame. But uncertainty was instead channeled into an unceremonious shove of Asahi out the door. With a press, Noya splayed his fingers against a firm shoulder blade and pushed, using his full weight to unbalance the much larger boy.  With a yelp, Asahi pitched forward into the rain and froze, not sure what just happened.

Noya barked another laugh and trotted past him, pointedly without looking back. He wouldn’t dare look at Asahi’s face. This was what friends did, a little bit of roughhousing. Nothing worth noting. He definitely did not flex and clench his fingers. His heart certainly wasn’t racing.

Volleyball was usually enough to make him feel alive. For some reason, touching Asahi worked as well.

**Author's Note:**

> Just brushing off some cobwebs. Thank you for reading!


End file.
